ORLANDO, Fla. - For the second time in as many MLS meetings, Columbus Crew SC and Orlando City SC could not finish a game with 22 men on the field.
Saturday's red card went to Crew SC captain Michael Parkhurst in the 16th minute after referee Silviu Petrescu called a penalty for a handball on the line. The ball seemed to hit part of Parkhurst's arm, but replays indicated the defender also seemed to have it positioned as close to his body as possible.
"Mike's got his arm in tight; it's pretty point blank to me," midfielder Ethan Finlay said after the match. "In no way is he trying to play the ball with his arm by any means. It's as tight to the body as it could be, unless it was off."
Midfielder Justin Meram agreed, also claiming that Parkhurst couldn't avoid the touch.
"I think it hits his hand, but he doesn't extend his hand out to make it a deliberate red card," Meram said. "I don't think he had enough time to put his hands behind his back. So maybe it's a PK, but to change the game like that, it hurt us a little bit."
Petrescu gave a short explanation of the call to a pool reporter's question after the match.
"In the 16th minute, #4 Michael Parkhurst was sent off for denial of a goal by handling the ball on the goal line," the response read.
Crew SC head coach Gregg Berhalter said he hadn't seen a replay of the call and could not say whether he would be appealing the decision.
The red card was the first of Parkhurst's 160-game MLS regular season career. Without an appeal, Parkhurst would miss the club's midweek match against the Philadelphia Union.
Up 1-0 at the time of the goal and subsequent penalty kick, Crew SC's strategy was ruined. Berhalter said the red card "completely changed the game."
"We looked good at the beginning of the game," he said. "It was going to be a good game for us. We had it all set up. In my opinion the game got ruined a little bit. It's two teams that want to play football, want to attack. It was going to be a nice game. And in the end, it turned out to be very one-sided and us playing a defensive drill for 70-something minutes."
Crew SC finished the game with five yellow cards along with Parkhurst's red, and Finlay said it contributed to a poor game.
"I haven't seen a game in MLS like tonight in the amount of cards; I don't understand that," he said, noting the match's seven total cards. "That's honestly absurd. And for them to have only one? That's the nature of the game, and it's obviously something the refs will have to go back and look at."
Berhalter responded to the red by taking off playmaker Federico Higuain and replacing him with defender Emanuel Pogatetz, who was supposed to be resting.
"We thought we'd be able to keep the ball a little bit," Berhalter said. "I'd say that's the only negative about the game. I thought we could have still kept the ball a little bit better. But given the personnel on the field, the fact that we had two left-footed center backs, there were a whole bunch of reasons why it became difficult."
And after that "difficult" situation, no one in the Crew SC locker room was nearly as disappointed as they were after the team's 2-2 draw to the Chicago Fire the previous week.
"Me personally, I think watching those guys perform tonight and the effort they gave, that was one of the most incredible performances I've ever been a part of, as far as the overall effort and everyone buying in to what we were doing," goalkeeper Steve Clark said. "It was amazing."
Berhalter said he just wants to see a normal game between the two clubs when they meet again in Orlando on August 1.
"What I want to see is both of us get together and play a football match with all 11 guys on the field and let's see what happens," he said. "Because I think that will be an entertaining soccer game."
Andrew King covers Columbus Crew SC for MLSsoccer.com.
